Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
On Sun, 6 Sep 2026 12:27:14 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
What, nobody else has checked in to say jamesdavisnicoll.com
is down? This is the second day.
On 9/8/26 3:21 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2026 12:27:14 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
What, nobody else has checked in to say jamesdavisnicoll.com
is down? This is the second day.
On the very small chance that it helps, one of my browsers says
" The server at jamesdavisnicoll.com sent back an error: 522 No Reason >Phrase "
In article <117oojp$2plj$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
On 9/8/26 3:21 AM, Charles Packer wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2026 12:27:14 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
What, nobody else has checked in to say jamesdavisnicoll.com
is down? This is the second day.
On the very small chance that it helps, one of my browsers says
" The server at jamesdavisnicoll.com sent back an error: 522 No Reason >>Phrase "
This is part of an ongoing issue that is being dealt with...
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
And right now, it is up.
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing
gender differences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture
wars these days.
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing
gender differences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture
wars these days.
Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing
gender differences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture
wars these days.
Androgyny likely dates back to before Sodom and Gomorrah.
OF NATURE IN MEN by Francis Bacon (1625) sets a stage, so to speak,
for gender fluidity:
He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set
himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will
make him dejected by often failings, and the second will
make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.
<https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56463/56463-h/56463-h.htm#Page_223>
A clinical treatment of androgyny is found in the Androgyny chapter of
SEXUAL ANOMALIES AND PERVERSIONS: PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
AND TREATMENT by Magnus Hirsfeld (1937, posthumous).
Danke,
--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. veritas _|_ telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. liberabit |
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' vos |
On 9/15/26 00:46, Charles Packer wrote:
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing
gender differences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture
wars these days.
Har4ly so. The culture war is led by those who want to deny
the gender variants rights as human beings presently.
Probably less than !% of the populace are gender variant and
the only Transgender ideology is that the the people who are in
discomfort because of anatomical disparities should be given palliative
care.
The dominate side of the discussion comes from the so-Called
Christian Right who reject the idea that transgenderism points to the >existence of the Spirit or even perhaps a soul generated beyond the
physical.
OF NATURE IN MEN by Francis Bacon (1625) sets a stage, so to speak,
for gender fluidity:
He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set
himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will
make him dejected by often failings,
make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.
On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 07:40:32 -0700, BobbieSellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.invalid> wrote:
On 9/15/26 00:46, Charles Packer wrote:
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing gender
differences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture wars these
days.
Har4ly so. The culture war is led by those who want to deny
the gender variants rights as human beings presently.
Perhaps by "leading" he meant "winning". As I have noted before, the
people you are referring to, despite loudly wanting a "culture war",
have been losing since at least the 1950s:
-- no-fault divorce -- the end of the South's Special System -- gays out
in the open, instead of in the closet -- Roe v Wade (reversed ... for
now)
-- gay marriage -- the entire trans phenomenon
That's a lot of losing.
A more recent treatment of the matter is in the "Transsexual Phenomenon" by Harry Benjamin who studied under Hirscfeld and
a history of the whole early episode and biography of Magnus Hirscfeld in"THE INTERMEDIARIES" A Weimar Story by Brandy Schillace
W. W. Norton. 352 pages, $31.99
MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD (1868?1935) has benefited from a surge of interest in
the past two decades and is frequently mentioned in these pages. While
German historians have extensively studied his numerous publications,
these have only become available in accurate English translations in
this century thanks to the dedicated scholarship of Michael Lombardi-Nash.
Hirschfeld was a gay sexologist who took advantage of work
that had started on sex differences in chickens in the 17th Century
leading to the discovery of the male and female hormones. He was
interested in removing the Homosexual population of Germany from
the criminal law. Ultimately due to the cultural misogyny of some
groups of male homosexuals and the rise of the Hitlerian Regime
his work and his organization was largely destroyed early in
the time that the NAZI Party took power.
Hitler's hatred of sexual variants is echoed in Trump's
Executive orders and Hegseth's directives about transgender,
gay and women service members along with his obvious disdain
for people who are not white.
On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:58:58 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:gender
On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 07:40:32 -0700, BobbieSellers
<bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.invalid> wrote:
On 9/15/26 00:46, Charles Packer wrote:
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely?
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing
thesedifferences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture wars
outdays.
Har4ly so. The culture war is led by those who want to deny
the gender variants rights as human beings presently.
Perhaps by "leading" he meant "winning". As I have noted before, the
people you are referring to, despite loudly wanting a "culture war",
have been losing since at least the 1950s:
-- no-fault divorce -- the end of the South's Special System -- gays
in the open, instead of in the closet -- Roe v Wade (reversed ... for
now)
-- gay marriage -- the entire trans phenomenon
That's a lot of losing.
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the
1990s.
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:58:58 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 07:40:32 -0700, BobbieSellers
<bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.invalid> wrote:
On 9/15/26 00:46, Charles Packer wrote:
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely? >>>>>>>
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing gender >>>>> differences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture wars these >>>>> days.
Har4ly so. The culture war is led by those who want to deny
the gender variants rights as human beings presently.
Perhaps by "leading" he meant "winning". As I have noted before, the
people you are referring to, despite loudly wanting a "culture war",
have been losing since at least the 1950s:
-- no-fault divorce -- the end of the South's Special System -- gays out >>> in the open, instead of in the closet -- Roe v Wade (reversed ... for
now)
-- gay marriage -- the entire trans phenomenon
That's a lot of losing.
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the
1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness.
But violence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if
they get worked up enough.
Too much trans discourse? or an anti-trans saturation strategy that works on multiple levels?
by WarpedBobbie
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the 1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness. But violence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if they
get worked up enough.
On 9/16/26 09:11, Paul S Person wrote:gender
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:58:58 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 07:40:32 -0700, BobbieSellers
<bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.invalid> wrote:
On 9/15/26 00:46, Charles Packer wrote:
On Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:27:34 -0700, BobbieSellers wrote:
On 9/6/26 05:27, James Nicoll wrote:
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
Ledom! Futuristic egalitarian utopia or something else entirely? >>>>>>>>
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-conform
Exactly!
bliss
This suggests a name for somebody who is obsessed with erasing
thesedifferences: ledomist. They seem to be leading the culture wars
outdays.
Har4ly so. The culture war is led by those who want to deny
the gender variants rights as human beings presently.
Perhaps by "leading" he meant "winning". As I have noted before, the
people you are referring to, despite loudly wanting a "culture war",
have been losing since at least the 1950s:
-- no-fault divorce -- the end of the South's Special System -- gays
forin the open, instead of in the closet -- Roe v Wade (reversed ...
works on multiple levels?now)
-- gay marriage -- the entire trans phenomenon
That's a lot of losing.
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the
1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness.
But violence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if
they get worked up enough.
Whose past does the violence lie in?
Everone's but these are some of the TG victims,
Ask Mathew Carpenter? Brandon Teena? Lia Smith? Brianna Ghey?
Sam Nordquist? to name just a few of the victims of Anti-LGBTQ+
violence.
And here is a current POV article by someone with the name Bobbie who
is not me.
Too much trans discourse? or an anti-trans saturation strategy that
by WarpedBobbie
<https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/15/800097392/community/too-much -trans-discourse-or-a-trans-saturation-strategy-taht/>
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:11:18 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:But
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the 1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness.
theyviolence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if
get worked up enough.
Fighting back by trying to make us all say "they" instead of
he or she? This is what got Trump elected (although running a
woman against him might have sufficed).
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:11:18 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the 1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness. But
violence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if they
get worked up enough.
Fighting back by trying to make us all say "they" instead of
he or she? This is what got Trump elected (although running a
woman against him might have sufficed).
Don wrote:
OF NATURE IN MEN by Francis Bacon (1625) sets a stage, so to speak,
for gender fluidity:
He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set
himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will
make him dejected by often failings,
Physicist and AF author Robert Forward disagreed. He said that he
preferred to tackle problems deemed impossible,as even a tiny amount of progress was significant.
It's a matter of attitude. In chess tournaments I preferred to play
people much stronger than I was. I did not regard a loss against such a player as a disappointment, while even a draw against such was an achievement, and a win was fantastic. By contrast, beating a dozen
weaker players did not, in my view,add up to much.
But some people prefer to play opponents very nearly their own strength,
in agreement with Bacon's point. Soviet trainers, long the best, felt
this was the best way to improve.
and the second will
make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.
The grant system rewards this kind of work, or as Tennyson said:
"Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point"
- though many of the best scientists I knew took Bacon's advice.
Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:11:18 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the 1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness. But
violence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if they
get worked up enough.
Fighting back by trying to make us all say "they" instead of
he or she? This is what got Trump elected (although running a
woman against him might have sufficed).
When I was a kid, the OED said that the male words always included the
female and my English teacher gave the example of "Man is viviparous
and he bears live young." This is very clumsy. On the other hand, we
don't have aviatrices anymore, so in a lot of ways we have been joining
male and female words together anyway.
I'm okay with the singular "they." The OED from when I was a kid says
it's fine. Pity the poor French people for whom every object has an >inconvenient gender.
--scott
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Don wrote:
OF NATURE IN MEN by Francis Bacon (1625) sets a stage, so to speak,
for gender fluidity:
He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set
himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will
make him dejected by often failings,
Physicist and AF author Robert Forward disagreed. He said that he
preferred to tackle problems deemed impossible,as even a tiny amount of
progress was significant.
It's a matter of attitude. In chess tournaments I preferred to play
people much stronger than I was. I did not regard a loss against such a
player as a disappointment, while even a draw against such was an
achievement, and a win was fantastic. By contrast, beating a dozen
weaker players did not, in my view,add up to much.
But some people prefer to play opponents very nearly their own strength,
in agreement with Bacon's point. Soviet trainers, long the best, felt
this was the best way to improve.
and the second will
make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.
The grant system rewards this kind of work, or as Tennyson said:
"Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point"
- though many of the best scientists I knew took Bacon's advice.
Lk 4:24 And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet (eg truth teller)
is accepted in his own native place."
In NOVUM ORGANUM, Book I, Aphorism 77, Bacon says it this way: "That men should immediately examine what error or fault they have committed, when
the multitude concurs with and applauds them."
In Aphorism 79 Bacon grouses about how theological obsessions distract
men of wit to ultimately slow down scientific advancement.
EUREKA by Poe finds fault with both of Bacon's two speeds:
For many centuries, so great was the infatuation,
about Hog (Bacon) especially, that a virtual stop was
put to all thinking, properly so called. No man dared
utter a truth for which he felt himself indebted to
his soul alone.
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:11:18 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the 1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness. But
violence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if they
get worked up enough.
Fighting back by trying to make us all say "they" instead of
he or she? This is what got Trump elected (although running a
woman against him might have sufficed).
Don wrote:
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Don wrote:
OF NATURE IN MEN by Francis Bacon (1625) sets a stage, so to speak,
for gender fluidity:
He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set
himself too great nor too small tasks; for the first will
make him dejected by often failings,
Physicist and AF author Robert Forward disagreed. He said that he
preferred to tackle problems deemed impossible,as even a tiny amount of
progress was significant.
It's a matter of attitude. In chess tournaments I preferred to play
people much stronger than I was. I did not regard a loss against such a >>> player as a disappointment, while even a draw against such was an
achievement, and a win was fantastic. By contrast, beating a dozen
weaker players did not, in my view,add up to much.
But some people prefer to play opponents very nearly their own strength, >>> in agreement with Bacon's point. Soviet trainers, long the best, felt
this was the best way to improve.
and the second will
make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.
The grant system rewards this kind of work, or as Tennyson said:
"Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point"
- though many of the best scientists I knew took Bacon's advice.
Lk 4:24 And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet (eg truth teller)
is accepted in his own native place."
My take on this is that most prophets are merely layabouts trying to
avoid real work, and the people who know them best are on to the con.
In NOVUM ORGANUM, Book I, Aphorism 77, Bacon says it this way: "That men
should immediately examine what error or fault they have committed, when
the multitude concurs with and applauds them."
This actually worked wonders for soviet chess. They were self critical
in the extreme, and this helped them. Fischer, one of the soviet
school's greatest members, can be seen doing this in his "My 60
memorable games". In one case he comments "Ironically, I wouldn't have
won the brilliancy prize if I had chosen the strongest move here".
In Aphorism 79 Bacon grouses about how theological obsessions distract
men of wit to ultimately slow down scientific advancement.
Bacon could have had in mind Dr Dee, who after doing good work in
mathematics drifted into occultism. From the perspective of a believer,
I suppose it does make sense to summon an angel and ask it about the
laws of physics, rather than spend your entire life making what seems to
you a small amount of progress. But if the angel never shows up you've wasted your life.
The above is an oversimplification of a very complex man, of course. He
was writing Hermetic works from a fairly early age.
EUREKA by Poe finds fault with both of Bacon's two speeds:
For many centuries, so great was the infatuation,
about Hog (Bacon) especially, that a virtual stop was
put to all thinking, properly so called. No man dared
utter a truth for which he felt himself indebted to
his soul alone.
Newton and Lavoisier, Spinoza and Leibnitz, Linnaeus and Hutton, all postdated Bacon and predated Poe. I'd say they did a lot of thinking, properly so called.
Poe hated chess. If he tried to find the right moves by questioning his soul, that is understandable.
On Thu, 17 Sep 2026 07:53:05 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:11:18 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage, were >>>>indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the 1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some of
them are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness.
But violence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if
they get worked up enough.
Fighting back by trying to make us all say "they" instead of he or she? >>This is what got Trump elected (although running a woman against him
might have sufficed).
Again, I must being unbelievably unclear.
The losers fighting back are those known for:
-- deorating their neighbor's lawns with burning crosses
-- lynching any of "them" who get "uppity"
among many other atrocities.
Trump won in 2024 by actually campaigning. The Dems defaulted to not
even trying.
Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:of
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:11:18 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage,
were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the 1990s.
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some
Butthem are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness.
theyviolence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if
get worked up enough.
Fighting back by trying to make us all say "they" instead of
he or she? This is what got Trump elected (although running a
woman against him might have sufficed).
When I was a kid, the OED said that the male words always included the
female and my English teacher gave the example of "Man is viviparous
and he bears live young." This is very clumsy. On the other hand, we
don't have aviatrices anymore, so in a lot of ways we have been joining
male and female words together anyway.
I'm okay with the singular "they." The OED from when I was a kid says
it's fine. Pity the poor French people for whom every object has an >inconvenient gender.
kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:1990s.
Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:11:18 -0700, Paul S Person wrote:
On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:42:28 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer
<mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
The acceptance of homosexuality, along with interracial marriage, >>>>>were indeed social successes, a done deal -- by the end of the
of
Thank you for confirming my point.
Having lost so much, for so long, is it really any wonder that some
Butthem are fighting back? Mostly with words (so far), thank goodness.
theyviolence lies in their past, and so is possible in their future if
get worked up enough.
Fighting back by trying to make us all say "they" instead of
he or she? This is what got Trump elected (although running a
woman against him might have sufficed).
When I was a kid, the OED said that the male words always included the >>female and my English teacher gave the example of "Man is viviparous
and he bears live young." This is very clumsy. On the other hand, we >>don't have aviatrices anymore, so in a lot of ways we have been joining >>male and female words together anyway.
I'm okay with the singular "they." The OED from when I was a kid says
it's fine. Pity the poor French people for whom every object has an >>inconvenient gender.
--scott
The Germans too. In Deutsch, the definitive article gender of an >object/noun doesn't always make logical sense, for example:
die Sonne, die Wand, die Person [The Sun, The Wall, The person] all use
the feminine definitive article.
das M?dchen [The Girl] Neuter definitive article
der Rock [The Skirt] Masculine definitive article.
Beginning English-speaking students of such languages can have a hard
time learning to distinguish between "gender" and "grammatical
gender".
Another pertinent excerpt from EUREKA by Poe:
Kepler admitted that these laws he guessed -- these
laws whose investigation disclosed to the greatest of
British astronomers that principle, the basis of all
(existing) physical principle, in going behind which
we enter at once the nebulous kingdom of Metaphysics.
Yes! -- these vital laws Kepler guessed -- that it is
to say, he imagined them. Had he been asked to point
out either the deductive or inductive route by which
he attained them, his reply might have been -- 'I
know nothing about routes -- but I do know the
machinery of the Universe. Here it is. I grasped it
with my soul -- I reached it through mere dint of
intuition. 'Alas, poor ignorant old man! Could not any
metaphysician have told him that what he called
'intuition' was but the conviction resulting from
deductions or inductions of which the processes were
so shadowy as to have escaped his consciousness,
eluded his reason, or bidden defiance to his capacity
of expression? How great a pity it is that some 'moral
philosopher' had not enlightened him about all this!
How it would have comforted him on his death-bed to
know that, instead of having gone intuitively and
thus unbecomingly, he had, in fact, proceeded
decorously and legitimately -- that is to say
Hog-ishly (Bacon), or at least Ram-ishly (Aristotle)
-- into the vast halls where lay gleaming, untended,
and hitherto untouched by mortal hand -- unseen by
mortal eye -- the imperishable and priceless secrets
of the Universe!
Don wrote:
Another pertinent excerpt from EUREKA by Poe:
Kepler admitted that these laws he guessed ---- these
laws whose investigation disclosed to the greatest of
British astronomers that principle, the basis of all
(existing) physical principle, in going behind which
we enter at once the nebulous kingdom of Metaphysics.
Yes! ---- these vital laws Kepler guessed ---- that it is
to say, he imagined them. Had he been asked to point
out either the deductive or inductive route by which
he attained them, his reply might have been ---- 'I
know nothing about routes ---- but I do know the
machinery of the Universe. Here it is. I grasped it
with my soul ---- I reached it through mere dint of
intuition. 'Alas, poor ignorant old man! Could not any
metaphysician have told him that what he called
'intuition' was but the conviction resulting from
deductions or inductions of which the processes were
so shadowy as to have escaped his consciousness,
eluded his reason, or bidden defiance to his capacity
of expression? How great a pity it is that some 'moral
philosopher' had not enlightened him about all this!
How it would have comforted him on his death--bed to
know that, instead of having gone intuitively and
thus unbecomingly, he had, in fact, proceeded
decorously and legitimately ---- that is to say
Hog--ishly (Bacon), or at least Ram--ishly (Aristotle)
---- into the vast halls where lay gleaming, untended,
and hitherto untouched by mortal hand ---- unseen by
mortal eye ---- the imperishable and priceless secrets
of the Universe!
That might pass muster in a bar where people are drunkenly arguing.
Nowhere else.
Luckily for us, he turned his brilliance mostly towards fiction and poetry.
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